As a vertical transportation specialist, Ian’s knowledge and experience of services such as lifts, escalators and moving walkways (as both a system designer and installation and maintenance technician) inform his technical prowess. They also inform his professional relationships, particularly with his clients and ensuring they have a thorough understanding of the performance, quality, contractual, maintenance and ownership issues of their building’s vertical transportation.
Ian believes the best response to the demand for lift service availability and ride quality is early planning, in conjunction with computer simulation studies. It’s a mix that can help deliver the optimum mix of lift numbers, capacity and speed and appropriate lift car design and operating systems.
A member of the Property Council of Australia’s Guide to Office Building Quality Lift Subgroup, Ian is a respected vertical transportation consultant, known for being technically astute and thorough.
Here, he shares his respect for the people he’s worked with throughout his career, his thoughts on VT innovations and some words on one of his career highlights (he’s had many!), Sydney’s inimitable 1 Bligh Street.
What inspired you to become an engineer?
There was no great inspiration or grand plan, I just saw engineering as being a good career path beyond the construction work I’d gone into straight out of high school.
Why vertical transportation (VT)?
Simply because it was the field in which I was already employed, I quite enjoyed the work, the people I worked with were a good group and there were clear opportunities for progression through the industry.
What’s your career highlight project?
There are too many projects over the years which could qualify for this! Without diminishing the status of any particular project, one project which comes to mind is 1 Bligh Street in Sydney. The project was a new build high rise commercial office tower which included a 30 floor atrium with scenic lift cars.
The client brief requirements included a premium grade development which would attract long term tenants; with the building commonly referred to as a landmark premium grade offering and having been fully tenanted since completion in 2011, these initial client brief requirements have clearly been satisfied.
Tell us about the vertical transportation on this project.
Although not a first time experience for our team, our work on this project included collaboration with local and international architects, requiring many late night coordination meetings to produce a lift layout which met the architectural design intent.
The challenges were around the layout and aesthetics of the lifts exposed within the atrium, with particular attention to details such as placement of structural support fixings, concealed wiring and lighting fixtures, glass clad lift machine rooms and including glass to sections of the machine room floor.
The project also required significant collaboration with the design team on safety in design for works within the atrium, covering both installation and ongoing maintenance, custom design fixtures and finishes for the lift cars, liftwells and landings. It also included sustainability initiatives for energy efficiency and use of sustainable materials.
What innovative new approaches are you seeing when it comes to vertical transportation?
Current industry talk is mainly around the ‘internet of things’ and its potential to improve reliability, minimise downtime and reduce maintenance costs; however, this is an emerging technology in the VT industry and the results are yet to be seen.
In response to market demand other developments are also being rolled out at both ends of the market. For low rise low speed lifts designed specifically for equal access, these are now being made to fit in smaller spaces which is something always sought after and is a ‘must have’ in existing buildings.
In the high rise high speed market, the traditional use of steel wire hoisting ropes has for decades imposed a travel height limit of around 500 metres, due to the weight of the ropes themselves and the length of rope which could be produced. However, developments in carbon fibre rope technology offer the potential for greater energy efficiency in all high rise buildings, and increased flexibility in the design for supertall buildings as the technology pushes well past current height restrictions.
